Eskom announced on Twitter that it has ramped up load-shedding to Stage 4 Tuesday morning.
“Regretfully, Eskom has just been forced to implement Stage 4 load-shedding at 07:20 following Majuba Unit 5 and Tutuka Unit 4 tripping,” tweeted the struggling power utility.
At the weekend Eskom implemented Stage 2 load-shedding.
In a later statement, Eskom gave details of the unit failures and an estimate of how long load-shedding would last.
“Load-shedding will, regretfully, continue until 05:00 on Friday morning,” said Eskom, adding that it “will continue to adjust the stage of load-shedding depending on the level of breakdowns”.
The power utility explained that load-shedding was implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid.
“We, therefore, request the public to continue using electricity sparingly, as we strive to return units to service,” said Eskom.
The power utility said a generation unit each at the Tutuka and Majuba power stations tripped Tuesday morning, adding to the failures of a unit each that had tripped at Tutuka, Camden, Matla and two units at Majuba on Monday.
“Since Monday a unit each at Hendrina, Medupi, Tutuka, Arnot and two at Camden power stations have been returned to service,” said Eskom.
“We currently have 5 124MW of planned maintenance, while another 16 519MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns.
“Eskom would like to apologise for the implementation of load-shedding.”
The power system remains unpredictable, warned Eskom.
